BRIDGEWATER -- A "black cloud" finally might have lifted from the town and the legacy of former first selectman Bill Stuart.

On Friday, two FBI agents arrived unannounced at Bridgewater Town Hall to return eight boxes of documents taken in a raid in July 2012.

"The agent who we've been talking to for some time said the investigation is over and no charges will be filed," First Selectman Curtis Read said Saturday. "I feel a black cloud has been lifted from the town and Bill Stuart.

"If the people who perpetrated this wanted to cause the town and Bill pain, they've succeeded," Read continued. "I hope now they can just let it lay."

The FBI has never said what precipitated the 2012 raid or described the nature of the investigation. Among the items listed in the search warrant were several years' worth of town meeting minutes and records from the Burnham Fund, a town-run charitable trust that Stuart had for more than 28 years.

Stuart was first selectman at the time of the raid, and local speculation was that he was the target of the FBI investigation.

"This should settle things in people's minds," Stuart said Saturday. "I'm sure it won't settle things in the minds of the people behind this."

Stuart has always contended that his political opponents were behind the investigation, hoping to disparage him and his administration and discourage him from running again for first selectman. Stuart, a Democrat, in fact declined to run in 2013 and stepped down after 30 years in office after the November 2013 election.

"The intention was to cause as much disarray as possible and to see that neither I nor my running mates got into office again," Stuart said. "It didn't work," he added, noting that Read, a fellow Democrat, won election that year.

Stuart and former Board of Finance member George Allingham, once great friends, had battled for years before the 2012 raid, beginning with Allingham's 2009 letter to town residents accusing Stuart of misappropriating Burnham funds.

Stuart denied any wrongdoing. The state attorney general's office cleared him, but the feud continued.

Allingham also accused Stuart of undermining his campaign for re-election to the finance board in 2009.

Stuart has repeatedly accused Allingham of tipping off the FBI. After the raid in July 2012, Allingham declined to comment to The News-Times on the advice of his attorney.

"All I'll say is I'm sad for the community," Allingham then said.

Calls Saturday to Allingham and his son, Tom, also a Stuart critic, were not returned.

Other residents were glad to hear that the investigation is seemingly at an end.